![]() While France’s population began to explode in the 1720s, its agricultural production and industrial expansion didn’t keep up and wealth inequality became acute. “It is an error,” he wrote, “to sacrifice the rights of owners just to alleviate a bit of the suffering of the poor by forcing a product to be sold under its value.” Turgot saw this as the fundamental problem of the economy. That meant grain merchants were heavily regulated so that they could not make large profits. Since the 1400s, rules were in place to make sure famines did not get out of control. The idea that fabulously rich nobles paid no taxes infuriated Turgot who wanted a fair, proportional tax system that favored economic growth and productivity by spurring the farming sector and consumer demand.Īt the center of France’s agrarian economy was the grain trade. While there was growing interest in these ideas, France was still a feudal country dominated by landed aristocrats - who, by privilege, paid no taxes - and their peasant serfs, who paid high taxes to both the royal government and to their noble masters. ![]() The most important reforms it could make were to cut spending and use better accounting to manage public finances. He wrote that the state should never opt to go “bankrupt” because it could take on debt or raise taxes. Turgot was a visionary of economic liberalism. ![]()
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